Geography and Environmental Sustainability
Year:2019 | Volume:9 | Issue:32|Papers Count:7

Soil erosion is one the main threats to water and soil resources in the world, as well as arid and semi-arid country of Iran. Soil erosion have a strong relationship with vegetation type and land use. Soil erosion especially in the karst areas led to phenomenon of Rock desertification and to block the channels of karst. The present paper aims at studying the karstic basin of Alvand River in the west of Kermanshah province for three years 1990، 2005 and 2018 by applying Erosion risk index model and satellite images Thematic Mapper (TM) and Operational Land Imager. The findings reveal that the vegetation of Arvand basin has had a decreasing rate in which 30% of the area has decreased from 1990 to 2018. The number of land use classes and their area during this time period have had significant changes. In the selected years, there was no very low erosion zone in any final maps of erosion in the basin. The medium erosion zone has the largest area in all three final maps of the soil erosion. The high and the low erosion zones have been the second and the third wide erosion zones in all the three final maps of the soil erosion, respectively. The very high erosion zone has been consistent with the karst area of the basin. Slope, heavy rainfall, and lowthickness soil have been the most important reasons for high soil erosion in the karst areas of the basin.

The rapid development of Tehran has increased air and noise pollution which lead to the unsustainable development. Since most vulnerable groups are more exposed to pollution due to the disproportionate distribution of air and noise pollution, the main objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between socioeconomic factors and air and noise pollution distribution in order to evaluate urban environmental justice of Tehran. In order to analyze the spatial distribution of mentioned pollution, air and noise pollutants have been studied. Pollution by stationary and mobile sources were analyzed in 22 districts of Tehran using geographically weighted regression model. The results reveal that geographically weighted regression model with local R2 was 0. 94, 0. 59 and 0. 85for the amount of pollutant emissions from domestic consumption, vehicle and motorcycle ownership respectively, with acceptable accuracy for modeling between the socioeconomic rank and air pollution source. Findings from noise pollution revealed that the model with R2 0. 43 does not strongly confirm the relation between the socioeconomic rank of areas with noise pollution. This study showed that the 1, 3 and 6 regions, with higher rank in terms of socioeconomic status, have the highest air pollution production, while the 18, 19, 20 regions with the lowest socioeconomic rank are more likely exposed to air and noise pollution. Hence, more vulnerable groups face urban environmental injustice.

Climate Changes affect human societies in different ways, but in the meantime, local communities, especially agricultural sectors, are the most related part of the climate. These features have made local communities to the pivot point of policy discussions and research projects on climate change. In this research, an indicator-based method was used to analyze the local vulnerability in confronting of climate change. Using a field survey and a tool for measuring the vulnerability facing climate change in target areas in Kermanshah Province, a semiarid climate has been investigated based on vulnerability indicators facing climate change, exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Climate changes have affected people in different ways, such as loss of agricultural, flooding, rising temperature land and water shortages on people's livelihoods, and the vulnerability of rural communities. The evaluation of the vulnerability of rural communities in the face of climate change in the three villages Gawkel (3. 1), Gravand (2. 93) and Shahrak hlth (2. 73). The vulnerability in this region is due to nonclimatic factors such as the case study and the sensitivity to climate change and inappropriate factors such as household livelihoods and infrastructure. Due to of the high compatibility capacity, the village Shahrak Helteh, has been more desirable than the two villages of Gawkel and Gravand. Also, Gravand Village has the highest environmental vulnerability of 16. 4. The countries with the lowest income levels are more vulnerable and less resilient, while those with the highest income are the least vulnerable and most resilient.

Identifying flood-prone areas is one of the essential strategies in planning to mitigate the damaging effects of floods. In this study, topographic and morphological indices were used to investigate flooding. Due to the effect of hydrogeomorphic features on flooding, these features were extracted by ARCGIS software and watershed modeling system with the help of digital elevation model and topography layers. Due to lack of accurate field data and incidence of soil moisture, vegetation layer and precipitation statistics from remote sensing facilities, soil moisture and precipitation were extracted. In order to control and compare the information extracted from precipitation satellite images dated December 03, 2016, it was selected as a flood sample. Due to the importance of topographic moisture index to describe soil moisture conditions and estimation of physical and hydrological characteristics, this index was used and the output map was classified according to the area. To illustrate flood-prone areas, a hybrid model was used in which the soil surface moisture layers (optical trapezoidal model was extracted from Landsat 8 images), vegetation, precipitation and topographic moisture index were applied. After mapping the maps and weighting, the layers were merged into GIS environment and the flood potential map of the basin was extracted and the basin was flooded with five flood susceptibility ranges, moderate floods, partly floods and floods, respectively. The flood was classified. According to the extraction map and analysis, out of 3279 km2, about 81. 6 km2 (2. 5%) were susceptible to flood and 1. 9% of the area with moderate risk of flood was identified. Most flood prone areas are located in the central plain and the north of the basin in the flat marginal lands of the Simineh River.

Cities will have accommodated most of the people around the world in the future. Therefore, the focus of managers should be on making these places more sustainable and resilient. Urban resilience is a concept that has recently been considered by urban planners and managers around the world. This has been a key concept in response to natural disasters and socio-political crises. The purpose of this study is to identify the dimensions of urban resilience and their relationship with urban sustainability in Rasht. The research method is descriptive-analytical. Besides, it is a kind of applied research in which data has been gathered by the methods like the documentation and surveying. The statistical sample of the research consisted of 35 experts familiar with the subject of the research who were selected by Delphi method and reached consensus on the research questions in three stages. Data were analyzed using SPSS and LISREL software. To determine the validity of the items, a first-order confirmatory factor analysis model was used and Cronbach's alpha test was used to assess its reliability. Model results and standardized coefficient measurements indicate the correlation between the present variables and the corresponding indices. The findings from confirmatory path analysis (structural model) show that social resilience (Beta = 0. 87 T 0. 87), economic resilience (T = 5. 62 eta Beta 0. 84), resilience Environmental-physical (T = 9. 78 eta Beta = 0. 85) and institutional resiliency (T = 8. 17 eta Beta = 0. 85) affect urban sustainability. Therefore, it is concluded that urban resilience can be considered as the foundation of urban sustainability and paying attention to the benefits of urban resilience in strengthening sustainable urban systems is a vital factor in achieving a desirable urban future.

Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) power plants often have negative, positive and environmental effects. Based on the sustainable development approach, assessing the environmental impact is one of the requirements for the construction of MSWI power plants which can lead to more use of its benefits, lower costs, and frustrate community discontent. In this research, separating the construction and operation phases, the desired and undesirable effects of municipal solid waste incineration power plant in the environment are predicted. Then, the studies on the environmental effects of MSWI based on two selected areas in Rasht County (Lakan and Pasiyekhan districts) were performed using the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM). The findings revealed that the first priority is allocated Lakan district with a score of-142 in the construction phase and a score of-340 at the operation phase. Pasiyekhan district with a score of-146 in the construction phase and a score of-496 in the operation phase is not a priority. Based on the results, the construction of MSWI power plant in Rasht decreases the need for landfill which can not only have a positive effect on improving the social conditions and the satisfaction of local communities but also prevent Saravan environmental degradation process in Rasht County. Comparing the negative effects of the project implementation and activities indicate that the most negative effect in both phases is related to the physical-chemical environment. This impacts are caused by the severity of construction activities emissions of gases, dioxin and furans, unpleasant smell and MSWI ash. The interactions of environmental parameters affect the intensity and radius of their propagation. Therefore, if environmental management practices are applied, incineration can be a good way to manage waste.

Urbanization and urbanized areas have a significant impact on local and global climate. One of the most important its effects is surface urban thermal variations (SUTV), including surface urban heat islands (SUHI) and surface urban heat sinks (SUHS). The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of landscape pattern changes and the efficiency of landscape metrics in analyzing surface urban thermal variations in Hamadan using Landsat 8 satellite images. Having calculated land surface temperature (LST), the SUHI and SUHS regions were identified, the existing land uses in these areas were classified and finally landscape metrics at class and landscape levels were extracted using FRAGSTATS software. The results showed that the highest temperature in the study area was seen in the areas with no vegetation cover, in other words the main component of SUHS is agriculture patch, while soil patch is the main constituent of SUHI. The relationships between LST and landscape metrics were also examined. LST and patch density (PD) were negatively correlated. In SUHS, in contrast to island heat areas, LST had a negative correlation with AI metrics and had a positive and significant relationship with PD metrics. The higher the consistency between land use and landscape patterns, the lower the temperature and the higher the fragmentation, the higher the temperature effect. The results indicated that land surface temperature in Hamadan is not affected just by land use composition and land cover, LST in Hamadan is not only affected by the combination of land cover, but also the spatial configuration and structure of the landscape is influenced.